Been lurking around the forum off and on for a long time and finally was able to begin construction on an oven last fall. I was able to get the stand and hearth slab complete before the weather turned. The weather got nice enough about a month ago to start up again and I've been plugging away when I can but haven't had any time to post. I'll try figure out how to post photos and catch up now.

I generally have a tendency to overbuild so there is plenty of steel in the hearth slab, but I had it and figured it wouldn't hurt to put it in.

I wasn't and am still not sure how the opening will end up so rather than span it with the top course of blocks and relieve them for the metal, I embedded a couple of angles into the hearth slab over the opening.

I have to express my appreciation to the forum for the wealth of information in these threads. I have learned a lot from you and have incorporated many of the ideas and approaches into my own build. The knowledge and innovation that has been shared on this forum has been immensely helpful!

That is something I hadn't thought about. The slab ended up about 6 inches thick so there is about 4 inches above the angles. Hopefully it won't be an issue. Not having any experience with suspended concrete, I had hoped the steel would ensure plenty of support....novice thinking I suppose

Brickie is right as usual,
Supporting the blocks until they are set would have been better. A monolithic pour over the wood storage gap would be even stronger. But, as many have suggested the original plans are over engineered, so you will be OK .

Thanks Gulf (and Brickie). I was probably a bit rushed as I hurried to get the stand done before freezing weather, though unless I had posted my plans before building the stand, I probably would have still not thought of the potential weakness. A monolithic pour was considered briefly but I wasn't sure what I wanted to end up with and for a variety of reasons, didn't have the time to thoroughly think through things.

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